by selise

ring-ring, ring-ring, ring-RING!!!

I think it's important for our sanity that we don't expect our Senators to change their positions immediately just because we make one, or one hundred, phone calls. This is about being part of a tidal wave that is built drop by drop with each phone call we make.

Our phone calls and letters and personal visits and protests in the streets are of critical importance, because without them there will be no tidal wave.

Don't let anyone convince you that this work isn't making a difference just because you can't push a button on the remote and get your Senator to immediately change "channels" - or develop a backbone.

That's what the DC elite WANT you to believe, that you can't make a difference, that you might as well give up right now.

DON'T YOU DRINK THEIR KOOL-AID. We've done difficult things in this country before (ended slavery, women got the vote, the civil rights movement...) and we WILL do it again - if we all persist in doing our bit.

Pick up the phone!

by selise

"Avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings". This is the kind of thing retired supreme court justice Sandra Day O'Connor has been saying with increasing force recently as she continues to warn us that judicial independence in this country is under threat. She says, "It is for you and other educated Americans, to be dedicated to the practice and promise of our Anglo-American common-law tradition, which makes the courts - armed wtih the power of judicial review and protected by judicial independence - part of the people's arsenal to enforce the rule of law and protect individual freedoms.

Judicial independence is not all that is threatened - and judicial independence alone can not protect us or our constitutional system of the rule of law and individual freedom. The judiciary has no mechanism of enforcement to limit claimed executive power - as was done recently in the Hamdan v. Rumsfeld decision. If the executive refuses to comply - or claims that the decision does not say what it clearly does say - then enforcement is left to the legislative branch with their power of the purse or in the final analysis to us - the people.

Listening to the Senate Judiciary Hearing on Senator Spector's proposal to retroactively legalize NSA warrantless spying on American citizens and reverse almost 30 years of legislative and judicial oversight, I am outraged that I can sense no serious commitment to "enforce the rule of law and protect individual freedoms". Here is the oath of office our Senators have taken:

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.

Do our Senators understand what they are doing? Are they listening to Sandra Day O'Connor when she tells us to "Avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings"? They try to make a small bit of difference for good, maybe limiting some of the excesses if they think they can succeed - but that is not enough. Hear what Milton Mayer tells us in his book "they thought they were free", about how catastrophe overtook the German people:

"Oh, 'effectiveness,'" I said. That I heard from my friend the teacher. For the sake of being effective he did everything required of him, and of course he wasn't effective. He knows that now. But then he had hopes of being able to oppose the excesses..."
"Yes, it was always the excesses that we wished to oppose, rather than the whole program, the whole spirit that produced the first steps, A, B, C, and D, out of which the excesses were bound to come. It is so much easier to 'oppose the excesses,' about which one can, of course, do nothing, than it is to oppose the whole spirit, about which one can do something every day."

I fear we can not depend on most of our political elite to significantly resist - at least not without such a level of encouragement from us, the people, that it becomes impossible to ignore us. That is what we must do, because we can't afford to ignore the lessons of history. Again, from Mayer:

"What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if the people could understand it, it could not be released because of national security."

"How is this to be avoided, among ordinary men, even highly educated ordinary men? Frankly, I do not know. I do not see, even now. Many, many times since it all happened I have pondered that pair of great maxims, Pirncipiis obsta and Finem respice- 'Resist the beginnings' and 'Consider the end.' But one must foresee the end in order to resist, or even see, the beginnings. One must foresee the end clearly and certainly and how is this to be done, by ordinary men or even by extraordinary men? Things might have changed here before they went as far as they did; they didn't, but they might have. And everyone counts on that might."

'Resist the beginnings' and 'Consider the end'

"Avoid these ends by avoiding these beginnings"

Note: RevDeb recently reminded me of Mayer's book, I highly recommend it - even though (or especially because) reading it in our current political climate may give you nightmares.

by selise

Listening today to the Senate Judiciary Committee Hearing on "FISA for the 21st Century", where Senator Spector's proposed FISA bill is being discussed, I have a message for the Senators who wish to mount a robust rhetorical defense of our constitution:

Do not EVER put the words “the balance between security vs liberty” together.

Learn to JUST. STOP. SAYING. THIS.

The principles of liberty and security are BOTH served when the administration is not allowed to operate in secrecy and isolation. Secrecy and isolation feed INCOMPETENCE. Oversight and transparency are (partial) correctives for this incompetence. For example, if the adminstration is going off track and wasting resources by sending the FBI out to investigate thousands of citizens because of their political beliefs - oversight and transparency can prevent this incompetent use of resources.

MAKE INCOMPETENCY the issue - the entire world knows that this administration has major COMPETENCY issues. You can use these hearings, and other public statements, to explain that their ideology of secrecy and isolation and a unitary/imperial presidency is an ideology destined to incompetence. Defending the constitution IS defending our security.

Al Gore showed us how to do this in his MLK day speech this year on "Restoring the Rule of Law".

In the words of George Orwell: “We are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right. Intellectually, it is possible to carry on this process for an indefinite time: the only check on it is that sooner or later a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield.”

Whenever power is unchecked and unaccountable it almost inevitably leads to mistakes and abuses. In the absence of rigorous accountability, incompetence flourishes. Dishonesty is encouraged and rewarded. Last week, for example, Vice President Cheney attempted to defend the Administration’s eavesdropping on American citizens by saying that if it had conducted this program prior to 9/11, they would have found out the names of some of the hijackers. Tragically, he apparently still doesn’t know that the Administration did in fact have thenames of at least 2 of the hijackers well before 9/11 and had available to them information that could have easily led to the identification of most of the other hijackers. And yet, because of incompetence in the handling of this information, it was never used to protect the American people.

It is often the case that an Executive Branch beguiled by the pursuit of unchecked power responds to its own mistakes by reflexively proposing that it be given still more power. Often, the request itself it used to mask accountability for mistakes in the use of power it already has.

amen.

by selise

Wouldn't it be nice if we all had NetRootsMass "business cards" to use to introduce ourselves when we go lobbying or at other roots actions? I thought it would be - so, I made up some designs and NetRootsMass "Business card" templates to go with our website. The example card posted here, is one of 6 variations... follow the link to see the others.

If you think you might like this idea, and want some cards - here's what I propose.... you email me (use either the contact page or the email address you see on the card) and tell me what name you want to use. The name you use can be your alias, your real name or both - I can make up to two cards and two @netrootsmass.net email addresses for each person in our group. I'll also need to know which of your personal email addresses you want me to use for forwarding, because the @netrootsmass.net email addresses will only be forwarding addresses - any email that is sent to them will be forwarded to the personal email address that you give me to use.

If you are willing to use either of the "white" background card designs, I can print up some cards for you. Alternatively, you can have either the original Illustrator file, or the high resolution tif file - and then you can print your own cards.

What do you-all think about this? Should we do it? Comments? / suggestions? / requests? I'm not wedded to any of these designs... but, we didn't have any, so I just gave it my best shot. If you feel inspired, don't let me stop you from designing a NetRootsMass business card template to share!

by selise

Kathryn_in_MA and I spent Sunday afternoon canvassing for Ned Lamont (more pics). This was Kathryn's second Sunday canvassing in the heat of summer and she has over 4 hours in the car to get to CT and back - that's dedication! The Lamont campaign has set up an office in Wilimantic, which is much more convenient for us MA folks. Indeed we met other Lamont volunteers who'd come from MA - and connected to the campaign via the blogosphere! What fun - met a bunch of Lamont supporters, and hopefully helped make a few more.

I signed up for five more days... if you haven't tried it yet, now's the time - it will make you feel the Nedmentum!

by selise

I was so excited to be CT for the FDL Meetup last Thursday, I forgot to take any pictures! Happily, spazeboy posted this excellent picture, "Spazeboy and CTBob strike a pose at the Firedoglake party" on flikr. The Meetup was a ton of fun - except for the little detail of a car battery going dead, and that couldn't spoil the adrenaline high I had from meeting the CT bloggers and all the others, who, like RevDeb, scarecrow and me, drove in from out of state. While I was relaxing and enjoying myself, Jane worked the WHOLE. DAMN. TIME. That's dedication, she must have been exhausted. Thanks to everyone who was there - you are an inspiration, thanks to RevDeb for the ride... and many thanks to Jane for her kind and generous hospitality - and especially for letting me play with Kobe, Katie and Lucy - who are as sweet and gentle and everyone says. I just gotta say though, that Katie must take after her mom, at least a bit, in the brains department. Katie is one clever poodle.

by selise

I want to write about going to CT for Thursday night's FDL meetup, but first a moment of reflection for all the people affected by the spiraling violence in Lebanon, Israel and occupied Palestine. While UN Secretary General Kofi Annan calls for an immediate cease-fire, efforts in the UN security council to halt the fighting are blocked... and the destruction continues.

Here is Worcester, we read first hand reports sent to us from Lara Jirmanus, who went to Lebanon to work with the Red Crescent for the summer.

This picture was taken today in front of City Hall in Worcester during Friday's prayer vigil for peace. For more pictures from the vigil, see the photo album. Claire and Scott Shaeffer-Duffy of the SS. Francis and Therese Catholic Worker sent out the call:

Dear Friends, We read with growing alarm the reports of Lebanese and Israeli casualties. These deaths are a reminder that violence is too costly a response to conflict. Please join us we mourn those who have been displaced, injured or killed in the most recent attacks. Please join us as we pray for an end to the killing and a just peace in the Middle East.

Among those also present were Tom Lewis (Baltimore Four, Cantonsville Nine, Prince of Peace Plowshares) and Mike True.

Update: This past week Senators Kerry and Kennedy, and Jim McGovern (Worcester's Congressional Representative) all came out against a cease-fire. Too few tried to do or say (pdf) the right thing.

posted by selise for RevDeb

Report on visit with JJ at Senator Kerry's Office 7/19/06

In attendance were JJ, MM, JJ's assistant, selise, Kathryn, John C. and RevDeb

JJ was extremely generous with his time. We spent over an hour and a half talking. It has been a busy time in the Senator's office the past week dealing with the Big Dig tragedy and the discovery of the construction problems. JJ has been the point person on all of that.

As promised we had a brief follow-up about the Yearly Kos Convention. Three of us had been there. We gave JJ a copy of 50 Simple Things You Can Do to Fight the Right and talked about the book and how that will be used by our Roots Project groups. It is a great tool for a long term project. RevDeb will try to make a copy of the Plame Panel broadcast to send to JJ.

We briefly talked about Net Neutrality and thanked the Senator for his strong stance and continuing support in favor of it. We also expressed our thanks that Senator Kerry signed on as a co-sponsor to the resolution to censure President Bush for his NSA warrantless spying program in violation of FISA.

We then got into a rather lengthy discussion of the crisis in the Middle East. Those present from our Roots group have been peace activists and are very discouraged over what is happening. We expressed our frustration and are looking for some leadership in regard to taking strong moral positions against killing. From there the conversation moved in a variety of directions ranging from "who are the terrorists and what should we do with them?" to again talking about what a party in the minority could do and not do. Foreign policy is under administration control. What can congress practically do? The conversation even included some "theological" language and Gandhi's take on "An eye for an eye" from Exodus 21 came up,

"An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth and the whole world would soon be blind and toothless."

We talked about Senator Kerry and were asked for our impressions and individual feelings about him. For the most part, whether it be from Senator Kerry or any other of our elected officials, it is important to us that we are represented by people who do the right thing because it is the right thing to do.

an after thought to the conversation is a quote from Rev. Martin Luther King, jr.'s Letter from the Birmingham Jail:

" On some positions, cowardice asks the question is it safe, expediency asks the question is it politic, vanity asks the question is it popular, conscience asks the question is it right. And there comes a time when we must take a position that is neither safe nor politic nor popular, but we must take it because conscience tells us it is right.

We also briefly brought up Senator Kerry's speech last month on energy and the environment. We gave JJ information on Rep. Waxman's bill, H.R. 5642, the Safe Climate Act. There is currently no parallel bill in the senate and perhaps Sen. Kerry could work with Rep. Waxman and sponsor it. JJ told us that Senator Kerry will be giving a major speech on healthcare Monday, July 31 at noon at Faneuil Hall.

These are the rough details of the meeting. Beyond the details we came away with a feeling that there was mutual respect among those in the room. We talked openly and honestly. This is not the kind of meeting one usually has when doing citizen lobbying with congressional aides who know it is their job to treat us politely and then go on with their business.

UPDATE (from selise): here are links to our previous reports of lobbying Senator Kerry's staff - first attempt here, second here, third here and fourth here.

by selise

Pach linked our site last night in his FDL late nite post! Now the pressure's on to live up to his expectations... yikes.

Hopefully, you've had the chance to poke around here a bit... but if not, please consider this your invitation - there's more than the blog page! We have a place for photo albums, our own wikispace and the ability to podcast if you are so inclined.

For posting photos, there is an index page with a link to each photo album. Photo albums are initially displayed with just thumbnail pictures (thinking of those of us on dial-up lines), to see the full size pictures, just click on one of the thumbnails and that will take you to the fullsize picture gallery. So, send me your Roots Project pictures and I'll get them posted for you! In the near future I hope to add a flikr link function.

There's also a resource page, with a link to our wikispace, which I've just started to edit - please join me. One reason I love wikis, is their collaborative nature. We all can edit both the pages we create and the pages created by others. This could be a powerful resource to keep track of the writings, speeches, legislative action and committee work of our elected representatives and candidates. Editing our wiki space requires an easy sign up to create a username (aliases are fine). I've sent out email invitations to sign up via the MA state project google-group, but if you haven't gotten the invite, don't let that stop you... please consider this your invitation. You can sign up by creating a personal username and joining the NetRootsMass wikispace (or just send me an email via the website contact page).

Finally, the blog page is currently limited to single user posting - yuck. I really want to make this a group blog, so any group member can post. That functionality is in the works... in the mean time please consider this your invitation to post via email (see the contact link at the bottom of the page?). Email me your post, a picture to include (if you have one) and the name (or alias) you want to post under.

by selise

The first (only?) Ned Lamont vs. Joe Lieberman debate is tonight at 7pm and RevDeb says it's going to be a classic. We'll be partying at RevDeb's house starting at 6pm. After all, if we're going to be yelling at the television we might as well do it together! So email the roots MA state project to get directions. Meet you there at 6pm. GO NED!!

UPDATE #1: Added a pic (taken by Mr. RevDeb, thanks!) of 5 of us with our laptops, but without Ryan who hadn't yet arrived.

UPDATE #2: Check out Ryan's live blogging of the debate... he was busy typing while I was yelling at Joe (it only looked like I was yelling at the TV).

by selise

I hope this group blog, and the associated wikispace, will prove useful to the MA Roots state project.... But if that's going to happen, it will need the help of the whole group... eventually for posting, for commenting and for editing the wikispace. But before we're ready for prime-time, we first need to test the site out... fix the bugs... and clean up the visuals. So, let's use the comments for feed back... everything from bug reports, tech advice (boy do I need that!) to missing links and typos.

.... I hope the comments are working! please be gentle with me. I just started this website on Monday, and this is my first - yes, I am a website/blogger virgin.